What is the theme of Once Upon a time by Nadine Gordimer?
What is the theme of "Once upon a Time" by Nadine Gordimer? One of the most important themes of "Once Upon a Time" by Nadine Gordimer is the inextricable link between fear and racism. The racist attitudes held by the inhabitants of the white suburb depicted in the story arise from an irrational fear of the "other," or the Black majority.
What is “Once Upon a time” about?
“Once Upon a Time” by Nadine Gordimer is about a family who builds a high wall topped with sharp pieces of metal in order to keep unwanted intruders out. Tragedy strikes when the couple’s young son attempts to climb the fence and is brutally injured by the wall and wire that were supposed to protect him and his parents. Hover for more information.
What is the best Once Upon a time study guide?
Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Nadine Gordimer's Once Upon a Time. Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides. A concise biography of Nadine Gordimer plus historical and literary context for Once Upon a Time.
Is “Once Upon a time” a fairy tale?
Nadine Gordimer’s 1989 work “Once Upon a Time” follows many of the devices and elements of a fairy tale (hence the title, which is use of the ubiquitously in fairy tale) begins with a framing element, in which Nadine Gordimer herself is a character that is asked to write a short story for a children’s book.
See more
What is the main idea of Once Upon a Time by Nadine Gordimer?
Gordimer experienced the apartheid system in South Africa firsthand and uses "Once Upon a Time" to express the fear and anxiety she and others felt during that violent period. Gordimer's theme is likely a statement against the fear, cruelty and social injustices associated with racial segregation.
What is the summary of the story once upon a time by Nadine Gordimer?
Summary: “Once Upon a Time” South African author Nadine Gordimer (1923-2014) published the short story “Once Upon a Time” in 1989 while South Africa was still under apartheid, an institutionalized system of racism that from 1948 until 1994 discriminated against all people who were not white.
What is the theme of this story explain how Gordimer?
What is the theme of this story? Explain how Gordimer develops this theme through the story's elements, such as structure and symbols. The theme of this story is that not everyone gets a happily ever after. We continue to go through trials and tribulations that test us and how grounded we are.
What is the genre of the story once upon a time by Nadine Gordimer?
Once Upon a Time by Nadine Gordimer is anything but a fairy tale. It's more of a dystopian fantasy - with overtones of the racial inequality in Gordimer's native South Africa.
Which statement best identifies a theme of the story once upon a time?
Which statement best identifies the theme of the story? Fear and paranoia can only be useful if it is contained to safe levels, otherwise they can lead to hurting people. Families can remain loyal to each other despite all the adversity they face in the outside world.
What is the irony in Once Upon a Time?
The words once upon a time are a “fairy tale approach and style” and they create a certain expectation that comes along with those words. The irony in that is the disastrous ending that is very unusual for a story that starts with such a cliché name and title.
What are the main themes in Once Upon a Time?
Once Upon a Time ThemesWealth Inequality and Fear. Set in the 1980s in apartheid South Africa, Nadine Gordimer's “Once Upon a Time” shows how societies with tremendous wealth inequality are doomed to fail. ... Apartheid, Racism, and Property. ... Separation and the Illusion of Security. ... Storytelling.
What does the cat symbolize in Once Upon a Time?
In Once Upon A Time, the cat symbolizes fear and vulnerability.
What is the tone of once upon a time?
The tone of 'Once Upon a Time' is nostalgic and perhaps a little ironic. The speaker dearly wishes to relearn how to smile a genuine smile again, how to laugh without pretension—but will he really be able to learn from the youngster?
What is the setting of the story once upon a time?
The overall setting of the story is South Africa during the apartheid era which violently enforced a system of segregation between white people and black people.
What is Goodreads for?
Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.
How many pages is the story of Apartheid?
So much in a 3 page story!
Is Once Upon a Time a fairy tale?
Once Upon a Time by Nadine Gordimer is anything but a fairy tale. It’s more of a dystopian fantasy - with overtones of the racial inequality in Gordimer’s native South Africa. Read by Alex Kingston.
What is the theme of Once Upon a Time?
In Once Upon a Time by Nadine Gordimer we have the theme of apartheid, equality, racism, insecurity, freedom, innocence, control and fear. Narrated in the first person by an unnamed narrator (writer) the reader realises after reading the story that Gordimer may be exploring the theme of apartheid. The couple and their son live in a wealthy suburb in whereby black people are not allowed to enter. Which may leave some readers suspecting there is an issue of equality with black people being considered inferior to white people. If anything with apartheid came racism and black people being only trusted to do menial jobs. Though it is unsure as to who is committing all the crime in the area. The man and his wife assume like their neighbours that it must be black people. Even though they have no proof. Which may leave some readers suspecting that the man and his wife are racist. As too are their neighbours. They would prefer to distance themselves from black people hence their living in a wealthy suburb in which black people are not allowed nor are they employed unless they come with references. Leaving many black people with no option but to beg on the streets of the suburb in order to improve their lives.
Why is it important to not name the characters in a story?
The fact that all the characters in the story (including the narrator) remain nameless may also be important as by not naming individual characters Gordimer may be suggesting that the issue at hand is global. All judgments that the reader makes also come from the individual actions of each character.
What does the security measures taken by the man and his wife highlight to the reader?
If anything the security measures taken by the man and his wife highlight to the reader the insecurities that they feel due to what is happening in the neighbourhood. However they do not realise that they are turning their home into a prison like fortress. Giving up their freedom at the same time.
What are the two groups in Once Upon a Time?
At the heart of Gordimer’s ‘‘Once Upon a Time’’ are two groups of people: the whites who live ‘‘in a suburb, in a city,’’ and the ‘‘people of another colour’’ who live elsewhere. In the story’s South Africa during the last years of the racial segregation policy known as apartheid, the differences between the groups are emphasized because it is one difference—the difference in skin color—that determines where one lives, works, and receives medical care and education. As different and isolated as the groups are from each other, the narrator uses small details in the story to draw connections between them. More precisely, the narrator suggests small ways in which the white members of this society are more similar than they might imagine to the blacks they desperately want to see as different.
What is the most important connection between the whites and the blacks in ‘Once Upon a Time’?
The most important connection between the whites and the blacks in ‘‘Once Upon a Time’’ is shown through their fear. The narrator experiences it first; it is her fear of the strange sound in the dark that prompts her to tell the bedtime story. She has chosen, she says, not to install bars on the windows, or to keep a gun, but she has ‘‘the same fears as people who do take these precautions.’’ Yet she realizes what the husband and wife do not: her fear makes her ‘‘a victim already,’’ even if nothing worse ever happens to her than being awakened by her house settling. The husband and wife are afraid, of course. It begins with the wise old witch, who warns them ‘‘not to take on anyone off the street,’’ and leads eventually to the electronic gates, and the alarms, and the added bricks, and the razor wire. The narrator focuses on the wife’s fears, but does not lose sight of how frightened black South Africans must also be. The housemaid voices her fears: she is afraid of being locked in a cupboard like her friend, and she discourages the wife from offering food to the ‘‘loafers and tsotsis,’’ or street thugs, because she is afraid they will rob the house. Though the husband and wife hear the evening news only as it might reflect on their own safety, the narrator points out that in the black townships there are riots, with ‘‘buses… being burned, cars stoned, and schoolchildren shot by the police.’’ South Africa at the end of apartheid is as unstable as the ground beneath the narrator’s home, and everyone is afraid.
How do the housemaid and the gardener love the little boy?
Though not much is shown of interaction among the family in the story, it is clear that the housemaid and the gardener, like the husband and wife, love the little boy ‘‘very much.’’ The husband and wife show their love by providing pets and toys for the little boy, reading bedtime stories, and erecting a fence around the swimming pool ‘‘so that the little boy and his playmates would not fall in and drown.’’ There are no scenes with the servants and the little boy together until the end, when the housemaid and the gardener are the first to hear the little boy’s screams and the first to reach him. The gardener screams with him and tears his hands trying to free him from the wire. The last image of the story is the four adults—‘‘the man, the wife, the hysterical trusted housemaid and the weeping gardener’’—carrying the boy’s body back into the house, united in their terror and grief, the servants showing more emotion than the parents.
What is the context of "once upon a time"?
Historical Context of Once Upon a Time. The implied backdrop of “Once Upon a Time” is apartheid-era South Africa, a time in South African history marked by racism, white supremacy, violence, and systemic oppression. South Africa officially gained independence from the UK in 1931, but the Afrikaner-led National Party won the 1948 elections, ...
Where was Nadine Gordimer born?
Brief Biography of Nadine Gordimer. Nadine Gordimer was born in South Africa to a Lithuanian Jewish immigrant father and a Londoner mother. Gordimer was kept at home for much of her childhood, as her mom worried that Gordimer had heart problems. Gordimer took to writing during this time and published her first work of adult fiction by the age of 16.
How long were Gordimer books banned?
While some were banned for only short periods of time, others (like The Late Bourgeois World and A World of Strangers) were banned for a decade or longer.
When did Gordimer die?
She received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1991. Gordimer died in 2014 at the age of 90. Get the entire Once Upon a Time LitChart as a printable PDF.
Who created the LitCharts study guide?
Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Nadine Gordimer's Once Upon a Time. Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.
What is the theme of "Once Upon a Time"?
One of the most important themes of "Once Upon a Time" by Nadine Gordimer is the inextricable link between fear and racism. The racist attitudes held by the inhabitants of the white suburb depicted in the story arise from an irrational fear of the "other," or the Black majority.
How does living in fear affect the narrator?
1. Living in fear creates a prison of one's own making. In the story frame and in the bedtime story the narrator tells herself, the characters allow fear to dictate how they act. The narrator, lying in bed, is "a victim already." She feels trapped in her room, unable to rest or sleep but also unable to rise up and put her fears to rest. The family, attempting to protect themselves from rioters, murders, and burglars, enclose themselves behind walls, bars, and finally an ugly Auschwitz-like coil. What they do to their property symbolizes what they are doing to their souls and spirits—cutting themselves off and stunting their lives because of their fears.
Who illustrated the link between fear and racism?
This close link between fear and racism is illustrated by Nadine Gordimer in her short story " Once Upon a Time ." In the story, the focus is on a white couple in apartheid-era South Africa living in an upscale suburb from which the Black majority has been excluded.
When did Nadine Gordimer write Once Upon a Time?
Nadine Gordimer’s 1989 work “Once Upon a Time” follows many of the devices and elements of a fairy tale (hence the title, which is use of the ubiquitously in fairy tale) begins with a framing element, in which Nadine Gordimer herself is a character that is asked to write a short story for a children’s book. She does not want to, rejecting the idea ...
Who wrote the plot of Once Upon a Time?
Thanks for exploring this SuperSummary Plot Summary of “Once Upon a Time” by Nadine Gordimer. A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality study guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, quotes, and essay topics.
What happens to Gordimer at night?
The night following her rejection of the story, the character Gordimer is awakened by a noise that she can’t at first identify. After realizing it isn’t a robber or someone else looking to do her harm (it’s only the floorboards, it turns out), she decides to tell herself a story in order to fall back asleep.
What is the story of the sleeping beauty?
The story she decides on is “Sleeping Beauty,” wherein the valiant Prince must climb through barbs in a thorny thicket in order to save the princess.
